The deal: I have no internet in my house. My wife tells me that this needs to change, and I agree. I am probably going to get satellite internet because (a) I'm off the cable grid and running a drop line is prohibitively expensive, (b) there is no DSL availability in my area. New technology like Exede has improved download speeds significantly in the last year or so. When I last had satellite a couple of years ago, I had 1.5 MB down, and now they advertise 12-15 MB down.

The problem: satellite monthly download totals are limited to about 500 MB a day except for the hours of midnight to 5 AM (unlimited then), so I won't really be able to stream video, much less HD content.

Possible solution: get some kind of hardware/software solution to store downloaded content that I set DVR-style to download during the off-peak hours of 12AM to 5AM, storing it to watch later.

Is this feasible? My experience with internet video is limited to streaming sites like youTube and embedded content. I do not have any kind of media PC, but I am open to purchasing whatever it takes. I have enjoyed my DirecTV DVR for several years. That's all I know, but I am eager to learn. You just may have to speak to me like a grandpa on this one, as I am a total n00b as far as getting TV/movies over the web.

Anybody doing this kind of thing already? Anybody else have thoughts on how to proceed? Any and all help is always appreciated.

I know that the automated fetching would be a challenge. If it helps, I am often/occasionally up until midnight and could certainly manually start a download if there was some way to store streaming video on a drive.

If you are looking for TV or movies, that is actually quiet easy. Ironic that it is easier to schedule the downloading of copywrited material vs. legitimate streaming material.

If you are referring to public, streaming content like Youtube, then there are lots of freeware and online converters, but setting up a schedule is 'probably' difficult. Got any Pearl programming friends??

Here is an online tool I used for Youtube but is looks like it has a lot of other uses as well.www.convertfiles.com

For instance, you can enter a Youtube link and it will download the youtube to its server somewhere, convert it and then email you a URL to go fetch the resulting avi file. I used it just once when I just had to have my own copy of "Ultimate Dog Tease." It worked well.

I have seen software advertised for Netflix and other subscription services but have no experience with it.[Edit] Looks like you found some while I was typing.

Edited by Murph (10/10/1211:49 AM)Edit Reason: sniped

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With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.

I have no solution, and am quite shocked that everybody just let that go without the required amount of good-natured, brotherly sh!t.

I mean, don't you think you should work on the indoor plumbing, first?

Obviously, you need internet. But do you have specific content in mind that you want/need to stream, or is it just something it seems like you should do?

My experience is that - if you're sitting on the couch - user interface is EVERYTHING. After trying numerous solutions, I found that Mrs. Tuttle requires a streaming appliance (Roku, Apple TV, etc.) rather than a PC to access the content. So, I would strongly urge you to build that into your thinking.

We really like DTV. And it's DVR-ness. So, about the only thing we consume off the internet is Netflix. I don't think there is a way to capture a Netflix stream, but you're welcome to spend your time trying, of course.

Could you just stay up until midnight to start your downloads? Seems like an easy solution to me.

Or how about your phone? Do you have a fancy-schmancy Android phone? I don't know what everyone's data situation is like. My Android phone has an HDMI-out, so I could hook it up to the system and stream content via 4G. I don't know how it would scale, but when faced with satellite internet, I look for other solutions.